Iraqi asylum seekers told it is safe to return home

IRAQ: MORE THAN 1,400 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers are to be told they must go home or face destitution in Britain as the British government considers Iraq safe enough to return them.

The Iraqis involved are to be told that unless they sign up for a voluntary return programme to Iraq within three weeks, they face being made homeless and losing state support.

They will be asked to sign a waiver agreeing the British government will take no responsibility for what happens to them once they return to Iraqi territory.

The decision, by home secretary Jacqui Smith, to declare that it is safe to send asylum seekers back to Iraq comes at a time when more than 78 people have been killed in incidents across Iraq since last Sunday.

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said its policy was that returns of asylum seekers to central and southern Iraq and for some categories to the north of the country were not advisable because of the continuing conflict.

The Refugee Council said the decision disclosed was a shocking example of the government's policy of using destitution to starve people into leaving the country. -

© 2008 Guardian Service

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times